More To Come
by Mrs. HopeEstheim
Summary: And that contented smile on her face as she slept and as he drew the covers up over her bare skin seemed to him a promise of more to come. JelZa. Round 3 Entry for Litashe's Writing Challenge.


_Erza_.

Jellal didn't know what it was about her that attracted him so much. There was no denying that she was absolutely _gorgeous_, of course, what with her long, luscious red tresses and spitfire attitude, but what else? She was fierce, and extremely loyal and protective of her friends and comrades–that was definitely a plus. The downside that many men saw in her was her cold exterior, her determination to make sure that she didn't let very many people at _all_ in. Other men didn't like the fact that she was tougher than they were, but Jellal? He didn't really care. He knew what they didn't know about her. He knew that she had had a terrible past and that _he_ had been part of the cause, and he knew that she hadn't even had a last name until he'd suggested they call her Erza _Scarlet_ because of the vibrant red of her hair. But most of all, Jellal knew that she had a vulnerable side.

He remembered her smile as a child. She never stopped smiling, despite everything that had happened to them and the promise of even harder times to come. Even back then, she'd found a way to move him in ways he'd never thought possible. His heart had leapt with joy every single time she looked at him, and he'd been jealous that Simon had fallen for her, too. Neither of them had ever told her their feelings, but more than once they'd had little discussions while she was asleep about it.

Every night he'd stare through the bars of the high window in his cell, staring at the stars and wondering when she'd come back. Because Erza Scarlet, _the_ Titania of Fairy Tail, couldn't be dead. Even if the entirety of Tenrou Island was gone, she was not. His heart ached with missing her, even if he knew he didn't deserve her.

Jellal Fernandez was in love with Erza Scarlet.

He knew that with the clarity that is granted to one by hindsight. Even when he was in the clutches of his madness, she'd been willing to sacrifice herself just to make sure he'd go down with her. She couldn't bear to have that Jellal, the horrible one that wasn't really _her_ Jellal at all, to wear the same face as he did. In a way, her attempted sacrifice was her screwed up interpretation of saving _him_.

Why didn't she care that much about herself?

* * *

><p>Five years had passed since Tenrou Island disappeared, and the council saw fit to set him free. Jellal stood there for a moment, staring blankly at them with emotionless eyes, and didn't even move. Finally, the council's lackeys came up and forcefully removed him from his cell, half-leading and half-carrying him to his freedom.<p>

He really didn't want to be free.

What good was his freedom, after all, when _she_ wasn't there to greet him? When she wasn't there to smile at him and perhaps welcome him into her guild as she'd wanted to but never really said. Jellal didn't want freedom if it meant he'd have to survive the outside world _without_ her for who knows _how_ long. And so he just stood, staring up at the place that had been his prison for over five years, for a few hours. Jellal didn't know what to do with himself, or where he should go. Without Erza or anyone else from her team, he didn't think that anyone at Fairy Tail would be willing to vouch for him.

It wasn't until a week later that two women showed up. The taller, dark-haired one reached her hand out to him with a smile, and the shorter, younger, light-haired one flashed a bright smile and did the talking.

"Hi! I'm Meredy and this is Ultear. You're Jellal, right?"

He nodded at the girl–young woman?–but somewhere in the back of his mind there was familiarity in the names. He stared at Ultear, furrowing his brow. She bowed her head and dropped her hand.

"My sincerest apologies," she said. "I've done horrible things to you in the past. I made you do terrible things to Erza and Fairy Tail, and for that I'm sorry. It took one a beating from one of their members and being tossed into the ocean for me to realize my wrongs and try to right them. If you're willing to forgive me, I'm offering a home. We've started a guild, you see, and our first focus will be trying to find where Tenrou Island and everyone on it ended up."

His eyes widened. Ultear…he remembered hating her briefly because it was _she_ who had caused him to do such horrible things, but he simply couldn't feel that anger right now.

"I'll help," Jellal said, voice cracking from disuse as he reached up. With a grateful smile, Ultear reached her hand back out to help him off the ground.

In his mind, he thought, _I'll find you, Erza._

* * *

><p>"What's bugging you?"<p>

Ultear's voice brought Jellal out of the depths of his mind, and he turned to look at her. She couldn't help but notice that there was an unusual light in his eyes, and she was kind of upset that it wasn't because of her. She didn't begrudge him of his happiness, though, nor did she have a grudge against the Titania for earning his love.

"I just realized…" he started softly, then shook his head.

"Go ahead," Ultear leaned against the rail of their guild's airship, watching him. "Don't leave me hanging, Jellal."

He sighed, and she let him put his thoughts in order.

Jellal didn't know what to feel. He'd heard the rumors of the sudden reappearance of Tenrou Island, but he wasn't sure that he should believe it. And they had all also heard that the people who had been on the island when it had been 'destroyed' had mysteriously been unconscious on the island. Rumor had it that none of them had aged a day since that catastrophic event seven and a half years ago.

It had taken this long for Jellal to truly accept it with his mind, even though his heart had yearned to go check to see if it was true. Years of thinking about her…years of confusing himself with thoughts that she might be dead but also thinking of the certainty that she was alive…and perhaps she'd been there for six whole months? And what would it make of them, he being twenty-five when she would only be eighteen? He felt as if he'd be much to old for her now, but just remembering her face sent his heart into overdrive and he knew that his feelings hadn't faded. As wrong as it felt…he loved her.

"After thinking and thinking…" he finally started again, smiling a little, "I figured out that Erza confuses me terribly."

_Almost to the point of my mental-destruction_, he thought silently to himself.

But the time for thinking was over, because there was Magnolia sprawled out beneath them.

"Well, it's time to put an end to your confusion, then, isn't it?" said Ultear, smiling gently at him. He grinned back.

He never knew that she'd fallen for him, but she'd never try to take him away from Erza. Erza deserved him, where Ultear felt she herself did not.

* * *

><p>"Ultear?" Gray's voice was incredulous as the Fairy Tail guild doors swung open.<p>

"Meredy?" Juvia looked with shock upon the girl who had once threatened to kill her precious Gray-sama. Even though they had become accustomed to the fact that seven years had passed, it still shocked the blue-haired water mage to realize that Meredy was now _older_ than she was.

"Is it…okay for us to come in?"

The speaker of this line stepped up behind them, a few random members of their guild trailing behind him. He seemed tall and imposing, hair dripping from the rain that had only just started to fall.

She had never found him so gorgeous.

Erza Scarlet forgot that he was now seven years older than she. She forgot that she was holding a glass, and it slipped from nerveless fingers. And she forgot to be mad at him for everything that had happened in the past.

All that was seen of the Titania as she surged to her feet was the mane of fiery red hair until she threw herself against him, arms wrapped as tightly around his neck as was possible without suffocating the poor man. And for his part, Jellal hadn't expected such a reaction, nor was he upset about it. It took him a moment, but he let his arms fall around her and he clutched her to his chest as tightly as he dared.

Yes, she confused him. This reaction was one of those things about her that did so. But Jellal wouldn't change her–any part of her–for anything in the world.

* * *

><p>"Jellal?"<p>

"Hm?"

His sleepy acknowledgement of her questioning tone was capped off with a yawn, and he murmured a soft apology as he tucked his nose in her hair. The stars twinkled above them as she sat up. He woke up a little more to look up at Erza, silhouetted against the night sky with the twinkle of the stars reflecting in her eyes.

By the moonlight, he saw her face turn red as she looked down at her left hand.

"W-we're married now…" she said, turning her face to him. He could barely see her in the dim lighting. His lovely wife of about…three hours. "Don't you think we should…go home?"

His eyes widened a little and he reached forward to place his hand gently on her cheek. As he thought, her face was burning up at her own suggestion. She was just so adorable…he couldn't help himself around her. Having her in his life once more made him feel alive again. So much more than he had been when she was gone those seven years. She would probably never be able to fully understand just how much she meant to him…but this was the first of hopefully many chances for him to prove it to her, wasn't it?

So he smiled, a gesture that was barely visible but caught by Erza nonetheless, and he stood, linking his hand with hers.

"Well?" he said, helping her up. "Aren't we going home?"

Her ears were turning red now, and he smiled to himself, leading her to the house they'd bought on the outskirts of Magnolia in the weeks prior to their marriage.

When they reached the door he stopped her, catching her by surprise when he scooped her into his arms and proudly carried her across the threshold of their home. Jellal didn't let his beautiful, redheaded wife out of his arms until he laid her on the bed that they were going to share, hopefully for the rest of their lives.

She sat up as he stood back, and smiled at him just a little before pulling him closer by the hand and surprising him by immediately letting her hands work on undoing the buttons of his shirt. She'd already requipped out of her dress and into a tank top and shorts, so there wasn't the bulkiness of a wedding dress in the way. Jellal didn't have that luxury. His suit jacket remained in the guild after the wedding, but he still wore the pants.

His shirt had dropped to the floor.

Before the timid redhead could go any farther with her intentions, he startled her with an abrupt kiss, letting his larger hands work her tank top up and once he pulled away, over her head.

* * *

><p>Now that Erza was back, he was healed of that brokenness he'd felt inside. And that contented smile on her face as she slept and as he drew the covers up over her bare skin seemed to him a promise of more to come.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Round 3 for Litashe's writing challenges.<strong>

**T for sexual hints and whatnot.**

**I hope you guys liked it! I kind of had fun writing it for the last…hour? Haha.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Erza Scarlet and Jellal Fernandez and all other characters mentioned are © Hiro Mashima. As much as I wish I owned them, I don't! **


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